Over 50 and finding it harder then ever to lose weight...

montyeva1114
montyeva1114 Posts: 78 Member
in Introduce Yourself
I’ve put on 15 pounds in the last 3 years and I haven’t changed my diet or exercise routine. What’s changed is 1. Menopause 2. Thyroid condition. I’ve always exercised and eaten a 2000 calories or less diet. Crazy, but I’m feeling stuck on how to start losing weight again. Obviously, eat less. But I don’t do very well being hungry. Exercise more; I average 40 minutes to an hour each day. I welcome suggestions. I’m hoping for encouragement. I realize that just writing down what I eat is not the answer. Anyone out there with ideas?

Replies

  • lauragreenbaum
    lauragreenbaum Posts: 1,017 Member
    Well you came to the right place. My doctor said exercise is great for a million reasons, but when it comes to losing weight it's 20% exercise, and 80% food intake. This site will show you how to calculate how many calories you should stick to if you want to lose weight. Track everything and stay under that amount and you'll lose. You don't need to be hungry- there are many threads here on low cal, filling foods. And yes, I agree. I'm also a woman over 50 and it is indeed harder...but it's possible.
  • LyndaBSS
    LyndaBSS Posts: 6,964 Member
    edited August 2019
    Welcome to the community! <3

    If you haven't already, read the stickies at the top of the getting started forum. Very informative and helpful.

    Weigh everything you consume. Logging foods into the food diary and staying in a calorie deficit is the answer.

    Good luck with your journey!
  • LyndaBSS
    LyndaBSS Posts: 6,964 Member
    edited August 2019
    Do you have a food scale?

    If it matters, I'm 61 and happy with my success so far. 😉
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,269 Member
    montyeva1114 wrote: »
    Wow... I wasn’t expecting so many responses. Well, I’m inspired. Well I’m starting today! I just went for a 30 minute run and I am going to log all my food. I will watch portions. Here goes! Thank you.

    That's a really good plan.

    Your OP said "I realize that just writing down what I eat is not the answer." While logging is not the only possible way to lose weight, it is a really excellent way to manage two things you mention in your OP: Eating less, and doing that in a way that will help you stay as happy and satiated as possible while doing it.

    Satiation is very individual, but logging what you eat will help you begin to see which foods "cost" a lot of calories, but don't contribute enough to your nutrition, satiation, or happiness to be worth those calories. You can gradually remodel your eating to stay pretty satisfying, but on reduced calories. If you want to exercise more, that's great for fitness, and will earn you some extra calories to eat, but it's technically optional for weight loss.

    I'm (1) menopausal (since my 40s when chemotherapy put me in hard-stop menopause), and (2) hypothyroid (quite severely, but treated properly with 175mcg synthroid which I take like religion). Using MFP helped me lose from an obese weight to a healthy weight back in 2015 at age 59-60, after decades of obesity, and stay at a healthy weight since, without materially changing my exercise routine (like you, I was already active).

    Go, you!
  • goodasgoldilox165
    goodasgoldilox165 Posts: 333 Member
    It is possible. I'm well into all that meno-fun and am losing weight more effectively than before. (There is nothing special about me - or my will-power.)

    Really, it is just a question of finding out what works for you AND believing that it is possible. (There are many voices of doom out there telling you there is no point... usually because they haven't found a way that works for them and age is a great hanger for excuses.)

    Having support on here makes a great deal of difference.

    Food matters more than exercise (unless you are taking up daily marathons).
  • montyeva1114
    montyeva1114 Posts: 78 Member
    My big concern is that logging what I eat does not necessarily equate to weight loss. I haven’t quite found the right way to eat that doesn’t cause me to eat too much, but will keep me satisfied. I have not been successful at 1. Gluten free diet or 2. Sugar free. They have literally both pushed me into a low grade depression! Right now my goal is to eat under 1500 calories a day and continue to hit my 10000 steps a day. I’m a very mobile person so exercise is always a part of my life. I did get on a scale for the first time in more tha a year. That was difficult; but I needed to know where I was starting. I’m definitely encouraged to see there are women my age having success!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,269 Member
    montyeva1114 wrote: »
    My big concern is that logging what I eat does not necessarily equate to weight loss. I haven’t quite found the right way to eat that doesn’t cause me to eat too much, but will keep me satisfied. I have not been successful at 1. Gluten free diet or 2. Sugar free. They have literally both pushed me into a low grade depression! Right now my goal is to eat under 1500 calories a day and continue to hit my 10000 steps a day. I’m a very mobile person so exercise is always a part of my life. I did get on a scale for the first time in more tha a year. That was difficult; but I needed to know where I was starting. I’m definitely encouraged to see there are women my age having success!

    It may not suit your temperament, but this is what I did while losing weight (and for nearly 4 years since to stay at a healthy weight so far):

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10636388/free-customized-personal-weight-loss-eating-plan-not-spam-or-mlm/p1

    Special restrictions are optional, and what matters IMO is a good overall way of eating (as opposed to thinking in terms of individual "bad foods" or "good foods" for weight loss).
  • LyndaBSS
    LyndaBSS Posts: 6,964 Member
    Forget gluten free unless medically recommended. By sugar free, I presume you mean no added sugar and not naturally occurring sugars.

    If you're depriving yourself from day one, you're destined to fail.

    Eat the foods you love and stay in a calorie deficit and lose weight. That's it.
  • suzygoff51
    suzygoff51 Posts: 5 Member
    I agree it is hard to lose weight after menopause. I’m 68. It takes me a good month to lose five pounds. That’s on a 1200-1300;cal diet. Slower metabolism, less active in general since retiring last year. Have started walking 3,4 times a week. Logging all intake and reducing portion sizes is helping.
  • goodasgoldilox165
    goodasgoldilox165 Posts: 333 Member
    edited September 2019
    It is odd isn't it? As cars get older, they get less and less fuel-efficient. Humans seem to work the other way and hardly need any fuel to keep going after menopause.
  • montyeva1114
    montyeva1114 Posts: 78 Member
    Yes!!!!!!
  • Annie_01
    Annie_01 Posts: 3,096 Member
    suzygoff51 wrote: »
    I agree it is hard to lose weight after menopause. I’m 68. It takes me a good month to lose five pounds. That’s on a 1200-1300;cal diet. Slower metabolism, less active in general since retiring last year. Have started walking 3,4 times a week. Logging all intake and reducing portion sizes is helping.

    How much are you wanting to lose? I think 5lbs a month is a good rate of loss. You should be proud of yourself. I think sometimes the difficulty in losing weight is that we are expecting too much of ourselves. At 5lbs a month that is 60lbs in a year...slightly over 1lb a week.
  • Pipsqueak1965
    Pipsqueak1965 Posts: 397 Member
    I have read about this all quite a bit - our metabolisms don't actually change very much at all - we just tend to move less in general as we get older (I'm 54 so have had some personal experience!). I managed to lose some annoying extra pounds (about 10-12 during perimenopause) by calorie counting, and have been strength training (partly to keep my old bones strong, and partly for aesthetics). I didn't actually find that menopause made any difference at all - I'm reasonably active (walk a fair bit) despite my desk job. I have put on a couple of kilos since starting HRT, but I think that is also down to a little bit of muscle gain as well.
  • goodasgoldilox165
    goodasgoldilox165 Posts: 333 Member
    Well done Pipsqueak - you sound to be doing all the right things and you look great on this too :)

    (Mind you, HRT should be keeping you free of all the menopause-symptoms... including slower weight loss.)
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,269 Member
    My experience has been similar to @Pipsqueak1965, except that I'm 9 years older (63), am random/rare/lacadaisical about formal strength training, and took anti-HRT (i.e., I took anti-estrogen drugs after estrogen-fed breast cancer for 7.5 years, and certainly take no HRT now (I'd expect it to kill me, given my history).

    I still think that much of our individualized caloric profile comes from activity level and body composition. Even the so-called "calculator" estimates suggest a pretty minor caloric "penalty" per year of increased age at consistent height/weight/activity level (for me, at my current size, the estimated difference from age 43 to age 63 is a non-whopping 100 calories daily at sedentary. . . and that's based on population statistics that likely include influenceable body composition changes in the first place).

    For interpretation purposes, I'm formerly obese (lost to a healthy weight at age 59-60 in 2015), severely hypothyroid (treated), 5'5", weight now mid-130s pounds.

    I think this is a thing most of us can do. I'm not pretending it will necessarily always be easy, but most of the important factors are within our control.
  • montyeva1114
    montyeva1114 Posts: 78 Member
    WOW. I’m so impressed with you!! I love to hear it’s possible to maintain a weight loss!! After so many years of losing and gaining, my confidence is low.
  • montyeva1114
    montyeva1114 Posts: 78 Member
    Good advice!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,269 Member
    montyeva1114 wrote: »
    WOW. I’m so impressed with you!! I love to hear it’s possible to maintain a weight loss!! After so many years of losing and gaining, my confidence is low.

    I hear what you're saying, and sympathize. I'd encourage you to grab hold of what you can control, and press on. Worrying about the uncontrollables (aging, hormones, whatever) is (IMO) a waste of energy.

    If you can (and I'll bet you can!), find exercise activities that are fun for you, and manageable (fit well into overall life balance, don't make you exhausted).

    Increase your daily life activity as you're able. There are ideas in this thread (among others):

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1

    Work on your body composition (more muscle), which is a slow process, but helpful in myriad ways. Good info in this thread;

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

    (It has bodyweight exercise programs - no/minimal equipment needs - not just weights. If a recommended program's starting point is more weight/reps/sets than you personally can handle, it's fine to start lower on any of those, and work your way gradually up.)

    It's fine to gradually remodel your eating to reach a balance of calories, nutrition, satiation, and general happiness.

    Gradual improvement is improvement. Everything doesn't need to happen all at once!

    An advantage we have with age is patience, and self-insight. Exploit those. You can do this! :flowerforyou:
  • Lunastar3
    Lunastar3 Posts: 13 Member
    Hi, I’m just getting back to MFP. I’m over 55 and finding it hard due to menopause as well. I need to get a hold of this because I’m starting not to feel well. I’m 50 lbs overweight. I hope I can find some friends on here. I feel so isolated and sure would like to find some motivational buddies.
  • Satisfiedwithbetter
    Satisfiedwithbetter Posts: 970 Member
    @montyeva1114 The best advice I can give you...,

    Listen to her podcasts from start to finish. It will change your life.

    https://realweightlossrealwomen.com/category/podcast/
  • ridiculous59
    ridiculous59 Posts: 2,908 Member
    Here's my experience:

    56 year old female. 100 pounds overweight. Working fulltime at a desk job. Spent years running three very active kids to sports and other activities. And of course, volunteering my time for those activities too. Then the kids all moved out and I took a hard look in the mirror. Didn't like what I saw or where my future health would end up if I stayed on the present course.

    That was four years ago. I've since lost 90 pounds (but always fighting with the last 10) and I am loving life right now.

    To me, menopause wasn't an issue. Or if it was, it was more than compensated by the fact that I could finally focus on ME and my health. I treated my weightloss journey like a part time job. I read everything at the library on fitness and nutrition, discarding some info with a roll of the eyes, and filing other info away in the back of my mind
    Food prep was part of this "job". So was exercise. I started slowly with deep water running and walking. And progressed to at least an hour a day of some kind of movement: yoga, nordic skiing, snowshoeing, paddling, weights, cycling, hiking, spin class, running, or cardio machines at the gym. I kept lots of variety so that I didn't get bored, and never had any "over use" type injuries.

    My husband was very supportive, usually coming with me hiking and skiing. He lost 15 pounds and looks and feels much healthier too.

    Decide what's important to you. If its your health, then jump right in and make it your priority. Move. Log your food. Manage your time to make it happen. Its not complicated.
  • montyeva1114
    montyeva1114 Posts: 78 Member
    Inspiring!! I like the idea of making it a part time job.
  • goodasgoldilox165
    goodasgoldilox165 Posts: 333 Member
    I can really agree with ridiculous59. Losing weight has been possible since the 'nest' emptied and there has been time to spend on me. I have had the luxury of being able to try different things to see what works.

    I have noticed that I'm more fuel-efficient now than I was as a youth, and that weight does move off more slowly (though I do more regular exercise -due to large dogs). However, it does move - despite the menopause.

    Time seems to be the thing that really swings this for me.
  • jwarr114
    jwarr114 Posts: 2 Member
    Wow. Ladies I must say I am in peri menopause and I am really struggling to lose weight. Completely altered everything and lost only 1pound last week!!!! So frustrating
  • annliz23
    annliz23 Posts: 3,752 Member
    I'm losing about 1lb a week but keeping it off so I think that good (nice and steady). It had become harder as I have got older (56) particularly belly fat which seems stubborn to move, but with persistence it is working ,,my main problem is exercise if I push myself too hard my knee, hip, ankle and back play up and I end up in pain, the trick is to find ways to balance the exercises around how my joints are feeling and not to be afraid to stop and have a rest.

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